Mysterious Stairs in the Woods – Call for Submissions

We’re putting together an anthology about mysterious stairs in the woods. The submission requirements are as follows:

There are stairs in the woods – as if you cut and pasted stairs from a house.

The stairs are usually in good shape – strong and sturdy and not rotted. Sometimes they are in immaculate condition, as if somebody is maintaining them.

They’re locations don’t follow any understood pattern.

You might or might not be able to find the same stairs twice (up to the individual author).

Approaching and/or climbing the stairs gives a sense of foreboding and weirdness.

Sometimes really bad things happen if you approach or climb the stairs.

The authorities (notably the park service) is keeping quiet about the stairs. Officially, they don’t exist. The authorities do not talk about them – even among themselves.

You can explain the stairs or leave them unexplained – up to you.

Science fiction, fantasy, and horror are most likely – but your story can be in any genre. One author I contacted told me I wasn’t likely to get many Romantic Comedies – but if you’ve got a good one, submit it!

You can submit as many stories as you like, but we’ll only publish one story per author in this anthology.

Submissions should be in the 3000-20,000 word range.

Submissions should be never before published. We’re asking for exclusive rights on this one.

Submissions should be in Microsoft Word format (doc or docx) and should be readable. Otherwise, I’m not your high school English teacher and I don’t care about margins, spacing, font, etc.

My name is Russell Newquist. I am a software engineer, a martial artist, an author, an editor, a businessman and a blogger.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science, but I'm technically a high school dropout. I also think that everything in this paragraph is pretty close to meaningless.
I work for a really great small company in Huntsville, Alabama building really cool software.
I'm the owner and head instructor of Madison Martial Arts Academy, which I opened in 2013 less to make money and more because I just really enjoy a good martial arts workout with friends.
I'm the editor in chief of Silver Empire and also one of the published authors there. And, of course, there is this blog - and all of its predecessors.
There's no particular reason you should trust anything I say any more than any other source. So read it, read other stuff, and think for your damn self - if our society hasn't yet over-educated you to the point that you've forgotten how.

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